Michael Cohen explains why Trump will always fail in town halls

Former lawyer to President Donald Trump, Michael Cohen, appeared on MSNBC's Joy Reid Wednesday to explain some of the behavior witnessed during the ABC News Town Hall on Tuesday.

Reid talked about a Latina woman who told a story about her mother, who she just lost to breast cancer, and asked about immigration issues.

"One of her dreams was to become a citizen, and she did ten days before she died and I did it, too."  She pushed me so hard to do it, and I did it this past 28th. I’m here because of her... We lost our jobs, but we learned how to love our family. So I’m saying that from her. Her question for you was — because she writes this question — what will you do for our immigration system, what will you change to make more people like me and like her to become citizens and vote?" the woman asked through tears.

Trump briefly addressed immigration, saying, "we want people to come into our country. People like you." Then he pivoted to talk about COVID-19, which the woman didn't have, nor did her mother.

Cohen explained that it wasn't that he doesn't know the answers it's that COVID-19 was on Trump's mind and it will be the likely issue that is his undoing in November.

It isn't that he hates the woman, Cohen said, it's that he doesn't care.

"I wouldn't call it a hatred towards immigrants," he explained. "It's just a lack of concern. It's a lack of empathy. They were a means to an end for him, and whether or not they were documented or not made no difference to him at all. You have to have empathy. You have to have compassion, and you have to care about something other than yourself to think about somebody else. He lacks those capabilities."

"Look at what he did last night to Professor Blaque," said Cohen, referring to the woman on air before him. "If that just isn't a demonstration of his lack of empathy, you know, then there are really aspects to understanding President Trump's mentality and his mindset when you are talking about empathy, which they desperately told him he has to start showing because it's really making his numbers in the polls go down a lot. First of all, it's not news that President Trump lacks empathy in general, and that's for anyone, myself included, right? And the second, it's also not news that President Trump demeans people of color on a routine basis."

His third point was that it isn't merely empathy he's lacking but respect as well.

"However, the third part, and this is the most interesting, last night, what President Trump exhibited with Professor Blaque is more than just a lack of empathy," Cohen said. "He exhibited contempt for her because she's a woman of color and he does this often, as well. So if you look at his body language, he appeared annoyed that here there is this Black woman, who is complaining about all sorts of preexisting conditions, asking him about health care, and in the back of his mind he knows that there is a zero chance that she's a supporter and is going to be voting for him and so this is the response that you got. Exactly the way that it looked on television is exactly what's going on in his mind."

See Cohen's comments below: